Abstract: Urban is not only the field where all kinds of modern elements flow, but also the subject of social structure transformation. By reviewing the relevant papers collected in CNKI and CSSCI, we find that China's urban social structure research in the past 40 years focuses on six aspects, that is, urban and rural structure, urban consumption structure, urban class structure, urban space structure, urban employment structure and urban population structure, in which urban and rural structure is dominant. In the past 40 years, the research on China's urban social structure has generally gone through three stages of low-speed growth, rapid development and fluctuating development, which respectively focuses on rural areas, urban and rural structure and then cities. Only with a broader global vision, a more solid theoretical basis and a greater focus on the subjectivity of a city can future studies of urban social structure understand social structure better and then provide theoretical and practical guidance for the transformation of urban social structure.

Key words: urban social structure, city, social structure research, CNKI, CSSCI